Ultimate Indonesia Trip Report

Julie and I just returned from 45 days in Indonesia with fellow wetpixel admins Eric, Matt and Craig and many other photo and videographers. I've put a tripreport online showing our day to day progress. I'll put a gallery with images online later, but no need to wait for that, as Craig has put up an excellent set of images already!

This was by far the best trip I've ever done, not in the least due to the very nice company. Everyone fit well together, on both trips. And I'd especially like to thank Graham Abbott for being a really great and amazingly patient dive guide. How he managed to stay upbeat with all of us 'all we saw was 9 frog fish' is beyond me. Almost every day he staked out the dive sites trying to find us the best spots which we probably didn't thank him enough for. I hope to dive with him and all of the other people very soon again.

For a visual view of the area we covered you can view this Google Earth KMZ file. Thanks to Matt and Alexis for providing the raw GPS tracks. The track does not show that we also did 5 days in Lembeh, which was the first time any of us visited that area.

Thanks for the excellent trip report and taking the time to put it together. It was a most enjoyable read and I found myself saying to myself "Now that's a destination I must visit!" several times while reading the report. Congrats on seeing various critters for the very first time, that really adds to the excitement. Sorry to hear about the compressor dying not once but twice and being limited to diving on air instead of nitrox. But it sounds like the rest of your experiences more than made up for it.

The gallery of images was spectacular. When I saw some of the images of the sea snake, especially the close up of the snake's face, I found myself thinking that the photographer was extremely brave!

Very interesting trip report, enjoyed reading it very much & beautiful photos too! The blue-ring octopus is stunning! Thanks for introducing the different places & dive sites. This is really an Ultimate trip.

Cor,
Great report; so nice to see Clown Valley (Alor) still living up to my fond memories. I dove it in 1999, long before luxury liveaboards travelled there; I opted to dive there while the rest on board went to the current crazy and pelagic site...when we surfaced, the children at the school nearby were on recess, and applauded us. One of those "best dives" on my list. Must go back....
Cheers,
Marli

Marli Wakeling

www.marliwakeling.comDuct tape is like the force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together. ~Carl Zwanzig